1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to financial presentation instruments. More particularly, the present invention relates to financial presentation instruments with an integrated holder as well as methods and systems for displaying and packaging such instruments, preferably stored value, gift, or other pre-paid debit cards.
Stored value, gift, or other pre-paid metered accounts associated with debits cards are well-known for providing access to goods and services. For example, stored value or gift cards may be purchased from various merchants such as Target®, Wal-Mart®, Starbucks®, Sears®, Blockbuster®, and the like. Pre-paid debit cards are also frequently purchased for telephone services. The purchase and usage of pre-paid debit cards has continued to increase in recent years to the point that the sale of pre-paid debit cards today is a multi-billion dollar industry.
Pre-paid debit cards are often printed and issued with a predetermined balance and typically then sold as a retail item. An example of such a card is a pre-paid gift card which provides an individual with a set dollar amount for the purchase of goods from a particular merchant. The account is accessed and debited by using an account number provided on the gift card. A problem experienced in the sale of such pre-paid debit cards is that merchants buying these cards are subsequently more exposed to loss through shrinkage and theft. As such, the merchant typically stores such pre-paid debit cards under lock and key until the moment the cards are purchased. This in turn prevents stocking of such cards on store shelves freely accessible by prospective purchasers and increases merchant handling time and expenses. In addition, the merchant must maintain inventory stock of different values of these pre-paid debit cards well in advance of when the debit cards are actually sold as a retail item, thus restricting working capitol.
With these problems in mind, merchants have begun to display non-activated (i.e., zero balance) debit cards. In this way, the merchant can readily provide unfettered access of such cards to prospective purchasers and reduce handling time and costs as theft is no longer a concern since the non-activated debit cards have no intrinsic value. Further, merchants no longer carry a large initial expenditure since the merchant activates the debit card with a balance representing an amount a consumer wishes to attribute to the debit card at the time the debit card is actually purchased by the consumer.
Typically, such zero balance debit cards are displayed and/or packaged for sale in a retail store by affixing the card to a card carrier. The card is typically affixed to the card carrier by adhesives or by inserting corners of the card into openings within the card carrier. Further, a hole may optionally be cut into the card carrier so that the card carrier may be hung on a display in a retail store. Such card packaging is often cumbersome in that the merchant has to first remove the card from the packaging in which the card is displayed in order to activate the card at the time the debit card is actually sold. Further, the card packaging increases the operating costs and reduces the efficiency for selling such debit cards and does not always provide for secure retention of the debit card.
For these and other reasons, there is a need in the art to provide improved apparatus, methods, and systems for displaying and packaging financial presentation instruments, particularly stored value, gift, or other pre-paid debit cards. In light of the fact that the consumer must have the card activated at the time the card is purchased, it is desirable to provide improved apparatus and methods in which the merchant is able to activate the card without having to first remove the card from packaging in which the card is displayed. It is further desirable to reduce the operating costs and increase the efficiency for displaying such zero balance debit cards. It is still further desirable to provide improved systems and methods for securely packaging the pre-paid debit card after it has been activated. These and other shortcomings in the prior art are addressed by the present invention.
2. Description of the Background Art
Card display packaging is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,720,158, 5,918,909, 5,921,584, and 6,543,809. Credit card like structures are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,829,168, 6,471,127, 6,588,658, D-396,882, D-429,733, D-436,991, and D-457,556; U.S. Patent Publication Nos. 2002/0027837, 2002/0185543, and 2003/0010828; and Canadian Patent No. 2,300,241.
The full disclosures of the each of the above references are incorporated herein by reference.